Ban on gay unions illegal

With a champagne toast and surrounded by friends, Diane Lantz and Marge Ballack celebrated an emotional victory for same-sex couples.

On Tuesday, a Thurston County judge ruled that Washington’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional – a decision that brought the couple closer to attaining legal recognition in this state. Ballack and Lantz, who live in Spokane, were among 11 same-sex couples who sued the state earlier this year for the right to marry.

“I’m as happy as I can be,” said Ballack, her eyes brimming with tears as she sat next to her “wife” of 25 years. “The equality part of this is so paramount. This means that everyone can be married.”

Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks’ ruling was the second time in the past month that a court has struck down the state’s 1998 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman. Idaho and 36 other states have similar laws.

“For the government this is not a moral issue. It is a legal issue,” Hicks wrote in his 38-page opinion, which was posted Tuesday on the court’s Web site. “What fails strict scrutiny here is a government-approved civil contract for one class of the community not given to another class.”

Hicks’ decision came about a month after a King County judge also ruled in favor of the right for gays and lesbians to marry. That case involved eight Seattle couples and used similar arguments that contend state law opposing same-sex marriage violates state and federal constitutional guarantees of equal protection.

Both cases will now go to the state Supreme Court, where they will likely be heard together, according to the ACLU of Washington, which filed the Thurston County suit on behalf of the 11 couples.

The judge concluded that, “Democracy means people with different values living together as one people. What can reconcile our differences is the feeling that with these differences we are still one people. This is the democracy of conscience.”

While same-sex marriage advocates celebrated Tuesday, others grieved Judge Hicks’ decision.

“I’m just saddened at the ruling,” said John Tusant, a member of the Spokane-based Coalition for Authentic Marriage. “I would’ve thought that the history of marriage, not only in the last 100 years, but since the very beginning, would have stood the test and would have made a difference in the judge’s decision, but apparently special interests play heavily right now on how decisions are made.”

The recent court rulings have led area pastors to take action. Last month, about 50 pastors and religious leaders from the Inland Northwest gathered at a north Spokane church to discuss how they can promote and protect heterosexual marriage. During the daylong meeting, pastors were urged to pray and register their members to vote for “biblical righteousness.”

A second meeting is scheduled for Thursday at Fourth Memorial Church in Spokane. At least 100 people are expected to attend, Tusant said. Pastors involved with the Coalition for Authentic Marriage are sending e-mails and calling other religious leaders and their congregations to spread the word.

“We do not see a need to redefine what marriage is,” Tusant said. “Marriage is between one man and one woman, and that is the criteria and the bedrock of what marriage is all about.”

Judge Hicks, however, disagreed with the view that marriage should be limited to a man and a woman, and said marriage isn’t just made for procreation and raising kids. “Strange as it seems, today the biological father and biological mother need never meet,” he wrote. “One may need a government license to get married but no license is required to father or birth children.”

Society also accepts different kinds of families, including gay and lesbian couples who have given birth or adopted children, he said. Instead of undermining heterosexual unions, gay marriage provides stability to the community, said Hicks.

Since Lantz and Ballack filed their suit in April, other gay and lesbian couples have thanked them for being part of this historical push for equality, said Ballack, who helped Lantz raise her two children. So many people in Spokane, regardless of their sexual orientation, have congratulated them and extended their support.

The only negative feedback they’ve received was an e-mail that said, “It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”